We ended last week with Pilate’s struggle in the first 11 verses of John 19. Pilate didn’t like the idea of giving in to the High Priest and his mob. He couldn’t find any fault in Jesus and seemed to be looking for pity in the crowd by flogging or scourging Jesus. They used metal and/or bone fragments in the whip to make it dig deeper and do more damage. The process of scourging alone could be fatal and afterwards Pilate presented Jesus with the words, “Behold the man!”
Use of the phrase “Behold the man” was natural but it also has spiritual significance because Jesus was the last Adam. He showed how life should be lived in contrast to Adam who did not show how life should be lived. Christ was the last Adam in the sense that salvation is revealed clearly and the New Covenant of Grace was established.
Romans 5:14-17Death reigned from Adam to Moses. Essentially there were no persons serving God during this time. It was a terribly dark time if you think about how few served God. In Moses and the Law many followed God even if it was fitfully and with many interruptions. The Book of Judges is depressing even compared with Kings and Chronicles. So the point is that one sin destroyed many lives but now even though there are many sins we can be justified by the work of Christ. No more are sin and death to rule in our lives since grace and the free gift of righteousness now rules in our lives as we submit to Christ.
Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
Jesus also showed what resurrection was supposed to look like for those of us who are subject to death.
1 Corinthians 15:42-49
So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
Well naturally all of this was lost on Pilate. He was afraid of Jesus because first Jesus admitted that His kingdom was not of this world and then the Jews told Pilate that Jesus said that He was the Son of God. Pilate was smart enough to know 1 plus 1 is 2 but, like most men, he feared Caesar more than God.
John 19:12-16
From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha. Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.
Pilate kept pressing the point that Jesus didn’t deserve to die but then, in a move that must have made Pilate’s head hurt, the Jews claimed they had, “no king but Caesar.” In effect they blasphemed again against God.
I know we’ve covered this before but since we are going past the “Behold the Man” verses in John and Jesus is the Last Adam I want to stress that He sends the “life-giving” spirit and we should be encouraged that although we first bear the image of Adam with our sin natures we have the promise that we will also bear the image of the “Man of Heaven”. We will be embodied and we will no longer struggle with our sin nature when we are in heaven.
1st Samuel 8:7-9
And the LORD said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”
When we say, “Jesus is Lord” we had better think about what we are saying. It has never been a thing to say lightly because God will try your heart and test you to see if you’ve got any kingdoms in your heart in which you’ve rejected Him as King. The Jews, in Samuel’s day and here again rejected God as King.
John 19:17-22
So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’ ” Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.”
So the editors (chief priests) were unhappy. The inscription, by tradition, identified the offence for which the execution was ordered. They wanted the offence to be rephrased. However, Pilate got it right. He didn’t know that he had it right. He was used by God to testify to the truth even though he was perishing. Jesus is the King of the true Son’s of Abraham and is King of King’s and Lord of Lord’s. Our King was on the Cross but those who were perishing claimed no king but Caesar.
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